Does Belize celebrate Thanksgiving?

American Thanksgiving influence in Belize

The American holiday which gives us an idea of the power of U.S. cable television and cultural influence in Belize is Thanksgiving, a uniquely American holiday which has absolutely nothing to do with Belize per se. But, there will be turkey dinners on sale all over Belize City, and the overall mood on Thursday here will be influenced by the massive holiday, cum NFL games, in the United States.

Thanksgiving is also a huge business event in America, apart from the day itself, because the day immediately following Thursday, so-called “Black Friday,” is a shoppers’ spree in the U.S. featuring large reductions in commodity prices. What Thanksgiving does in the U.S., is provide the first spark for the Christmas splurging attitude amongst shoppers, and there are many business people in Belize who are anxiously awaiting that said splurging attitude amongst Belizeans.

One local media voice, conscious of Thanksgiving’s major influence in Belize, has suggested that Belize “piggyback” on Thanksgiving by celebrating on that same day something like the end of the hurricane season. A desperate thought, perhaps, but it is evidence of American Thanksgiving’s powerful influence on little Belize, just six hundred miles south.